Lola

Strange, sad thing about 1981's LOLA.  The second in writer/director Werner Rainer Fassbinder's BRD trilogy lacks the very thing that makes its predecessor, THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, and its follow-up, VERONIKA VOSS so immediate - deep identification with the titular heroine.  All three films are set in post WW2 Germany, when the social market economy was beginning to bloom, or fester, depending on your point of view.  Each successive film shows the erosion of female empowerment,  beginning with Mrs. Braun's ascension and fall, and climaxing with the terrible fate of Ms. Voss.  We got to know them well, and the stories were driven by them.  

Lola (Barbara Sukowa) is an enterprising singer/lady of the evening who is the star of the local brothel, owned by a property developer/vulgarian called Schuckert (Mario Adorf).  Their relationship is complicated and deep, you might say.  Schuckert also benefits from the rampant corruption among the police, politicians, and bankers.  Into this fold comes the new building commissioner, Von Bohm (Armand Mueller-Stahl), morally upright, honest, and old fashioned.  He will eventually clash with Schuckert and his cronies, unaware of the former's association with his new object of affection - Lola, who happens to be the daughter of Von Bohm's housekeeper (Karin Baal).  Lola's young daughter - fathered by Schuckert - is also tangentially involved.  What will Von Bohm do when he learns the truth?

Fassbinder again works with soap opera-ish material, and transcends it with clever writing and high minded social and political commentary.  His tone remains bitterly cynical and satiric.  His direction is masterful.  The actors are fine.  But the screenplay keeps everyone and everything at arm's length.  Instead of feeling as if we are in the heroine's shoes (as we did in the other films), we rather seem like an interloper.  Someone who maybe wandered in and is eavesdropping, getting all the information but not the emotion.  Too much time is spent with Von Bohm.  This should've been all about Lola and how she related to him and everyone else, from her point of view.  Fassbinder's eye wanders, leaving LOLA an unsatisfying mess of sorts.

But its celebrated use of pastel colors is astonishing.  No one can argue.  As if we're watching some childlike fantasy, yet patently adult in every moment.  

LOLA is for me the least of the BRD trilogy.  Astute yet overstated and somewhat tired.  I reached the final scene with acknowledgement of Fassbinder's cold wit and dissatisfaction.  "We all go to the whorehouse," yes, but there simply was not enough of the title character.